Kagome destroys the World
by jeffs
Summary: Kagome does something... and The World destroys itself... not for the squeamish. chapter 2 A realistic scenerio
1. Default Chapter

Kagome destroys the world!  
  
I don't own the characters in this story.  
  
If you find topical (terrorist-type) stories offensive, don't read this.  
  
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In a gray room, deep under Tokyo, the government of japan meets.  
  
Smoke from cigarettes form a cloud in the room. As people enter and leave the room, the smoke swirls around the room. Military mps control who comes in or out.  
  
There is a large oval desk in the room. It is piled high with papers, CDs, DVDs. Bottles of water, cans of tea, and soft drinks line the desk.  
  
Most of the people in the room are men. About half the men are wearing military uniforms, with high rank badges on. The other men in the room are wearing expensive looking suits. The few women in the room are either young secretaries or older women. Most are Japanese, but there is a small group of US military and civilian personnel in the room.  
  
The clothes of everyone in room are well worn, like the people have slept days in them. They are rumpled, sweat stains and creased. Most of the people in the room have on white surgical face masks. Some of the masks are draped around their neck, but most of the people in the room are talking through them.  
  
Whispers fill the room.  
  
"Riots are still taking place in Europe and North America."  
  
"Nothing . . . it's like sub-Sahara Africa has vanished. People might still live there, but there's no organized governments left."  
  
"South America is almost as bad. There's people still claiming to be in control there, but . . . "  
  
"China's new Military leaders are yelling that the epidemic is from the west. Their speeches are getting more and more extreme."  
  
"Russia says that they will defend themselves aggressively. And they have placed their military on the highest state of readiness." "The Americans are still sure it was North Korea. They say that they will have proof soon."  
  
"India's generals are claiming it's from Pakistan."  
  
"Pakistan is claiming it's from India."  
  
"Australia just destroyed another ship of refugees."  
  
"South Asia is dissolving into chaos."  
  
"Just heard that Israel is seriously considered using its special devices to sterilize areas."  
  
"If they do . . . "  
  
The Emperor, Prime Minister and Head of the Japanese Defense Forces enter the room. Everyone stops, stands and bows to them.  
  
"We will begin the daily briefing in five minutes." Is announced in general to the room.  
  
One man, an older man dressed in a rumpled suit, stubs out a cigarette and begins to straighten his paperwork. 'Finally. Not that this report is complete, but, it does answer most of the questions about how this epidemic began.' Yoriko Kawaguchi, chief detective of the Tokyo police force, thinks.  
  
He glances at the US personnel, 'I thought so. They are quiet today. I received a copy of that report on the vaccination snafu. I'm sure that they don't want to be questioned about it today. That report was very embarrassing.'  
  
He shakes his head as he remembers the mess that happened when the epidemic first became public.  
  
The US government released 'carefully stored' stocks of the vaccine. But, in the first general release, something went wrong. Half-a-dozen people, relatives to various important people in Washington, died soon after getting the injections. The vaccine was withdrawn for 'testing'.  
  
Unfortunately, that allowed the disease to spread unchecked, instead of being stopped when it was controllable. And, while other governments had 'stored' stocks of the vaccine as well, none of them had it in large amounts. The limited amount of the vaccine available caused panics to develop. Riots happened as people tried to get the vaccine. Armed groups would steal it, and try to resale it . . .  
  
The US government then, due the emergency re-released the vaccine, but by that time . . . The disease was out of control . . . and problems with the distribution of the vaccine happened (too many people wanted it right now . . . and it was distributed unevenly due to politics/money.) Riots developed all over the world, as people tried to get the vaccine.  
  
As the disease spread through, it also spread chaos and increased the level of military tensions throughout the world. Nobody knows exactly how the epidemic started and who is to blame. But theories abound . . . and all the worlds' militaries are on high alert, watching and waiting for something . . . anything to trigger them . . .  
  
'And all that the report had in it is the reasons why it wasn't the fault of anyone particular agencies. None of them took responsibility. It wasn't their fault.' He shakes his head. 'I know we made mistakes, trying to uncover what happened that day in The Tokyo National Museum. And if asked, I'm going to have to admit them.' He sighs.  
  
Five minutes later . . .  
  
"Doctor Haru is first."  
  
A short, thin man, who looks likes aged decades in the last few weeks, stands up. He clears his throat. "When this pandemic began, the world's population was six billion. Today, by our best estimate, six hundred million have died since its start."  
  
The room buzzing with whispers.  
  
"China? India?"  
  
"That estimate is our best guess, but neither of those nations are releasing new data. And the collapse of most of the nations in South America, Africa and other parts of the world, is limiting our data. We guessed. It could be worse."  
  
"Any other questions?" he asks.  
  
Nothing. He sits down.  
  
"Yoriko Kawaguchi, Chief Detective of the Tokyo Police Force, has a special report on the origin of the pandemic sweeping over the world."  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi stands up, and glancing at his paperwork, begins to speak:  
  
"As everyone knows, the first case of the disease occurred to visitors to the Tokyo National Museum. We've traced it back to the opening day of a new exhibit on Legends and Demons of Japan. This was a heavily advertised exhibit and the museum recorded visitors from many different countries. " He takes a drink of water.  
  
"This is what caused the disease to show up within days all over the world. There are many very popular theories that it was a terrorist group that infected the museum. None of which can be proved or disproved, as of yet. Theories also circulate that some of the exhibits were the cause of the disease. Those theories can be ignored. Comprehensive testing on the exhibit disproves that theory."  
  
A few people in the room sigh and nod.  
  
"However, everything my investigators can find points to one person. How and why she acquired the disease is still unknown, but."  
  
"Show the slide." He orders.  
  
A picture of a beautiful young Japanese woman appears on the screen.  
  
He continues:  
  
"Higurashi Kagome. A female high school student is the first person to acquire the disease."  
  
The room stirs and whispers among themselves.  
  
"She is not the first person with the disease. There was that Chinese kid and his mother and that American business man . . . " someone in the room mentions.  
  
He replies. "She was the first person with the disease. The disease is not one hundred percent fatal, it is only about thirty percent fatal, unless you are listening to the popular news programs, which have excited people by misinforming them"  
  
A mummer of agreement spreads through the room. While the modern media is helpful, too many news programs, trying to capture viewers, exaggerated the effects of the disease in the first few days, and that helped to trigger the worldwide riots. And they also spread many of the theories of who spread the disease, which started the military buildup that has occurred over the last few months.  
  
"She was sick, but survived it. And she was a member of the high school class that visited the museum that day. The same class, in which, everyone got the disease."  
  
The room goes silent. There had been other individual cases occurring elsewhere in the world, but that high school class was the first mass exposure. Most of the class died of the disease. And the panic as the disease spread rapidly through the city of Tokyo started one of the major riots that have engulfed the country since then.  
  
He continues: "But, unlike the others, there is something very strange about her."  
  
"Strange?"  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi nods. "Two years ago, shortly after her fifteenth birthday, her school attendance began to decline and as time passed it became very spotty. While the principal of her school is dead, we have talked to his secretary. Her grandfather, who was the fourth person to die of the disease, would call into the school claiming that she was sick."  
  
"Since the principal of the school was an old friend of her grandfather's, this attendance problem was never brought to the attention of anybody."  
  
"Why should we be concerned?" someone in the room asks.  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi answers, "talking with survivors, we found out that when she did attend class. She was never sick. Her gym teacher even claimed that she was getting physically stronger and coming to class tanned on occasion."  
  
"Still, why her?"  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi sighs, "Her father, who vanished years ago, and her grandfather were connected to various right-wing yakuza connected groups. Some of which are rumored to be interested in chemical and biological weapons."  
  
The room sighs . . .  
  
"You mean this was home grown? Not from North Korea?" One of the high- ranking generals asks.  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi replies. "I do not know. I cannot prove it"  
  
"Are you sure it's her?" another person asks.  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi nods. "Yes, I've got good three pieces of evidence."  
  
"Let's hear them." Someone requests.  
  
"First, before they died, we interviewed members of her class. All of them state that she attended the field trip to the museum, even though she was very sick."  
  
The room sighs again . . .  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi nods. "Yes, She was the primary carrier. When she mingled in the crowds at the museum, she spread the disease all over the world."  
  
He flips his notes and reads, "a quote from one of her friends. Higurashi said, 'Even though I'm actually sick for once, there is no way that I'm going to miss this trip to the museum. I want to see want they've gotten right.'"  
  
"The second piece is this recording. She called her friend named Ayumi and left this message on the voice-mail. This occurred after the death of her grandfather and little brother, deaths that she missed. She could not be found while they were sick. We wanted to talk to her then, but her mother wouldn't tell us anything. Please play it."  
  
Kagome's voice begins to sound in the room. "My fault. It's all my fault, Ayumi. I just thought that I had a cold." Kagome's voice catches, as she sniffles, trying not to cry.  
  
"I've gotten some medical textbooks. Inu-yasha and I stole some supplies." Her voice hardens. "I can learn how to make the vaccine, Ayumi. I'm going to go through the well and fix things. So this won't happen."  
  
Kagome begins to cry, "If I had been here, instead of with Inu-yasha these last couple of weeks. I could have stopped it, but, it's too big now, too many people. I'm going to have go back and fix it at the source, Ayumi."  
  
A pause, "I'm sorry, Ayumi. I didn't mean to kill anyone." Kagome begins to cry. She is still crying when the recording ends.  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi begins to speak again. "And the final piece of the puzzle is that name 'Inu-yasha'. Her friend Ayumi, in her diary, mentioned that name and some powerful secret connected to it."  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi looks at the head of the Japanese Defense Forces, who is glaring back at him, anger is very visible in his gaze.  
  
He interrupts Yoriko Kawaguchi, "You've asked us about that name and we told you the truth, detective." He growls.  
  
"What?" half-a-dozen people in the room yell.  
  
The Emperor stands. The room becomes quiet. "We are civilized men and women. Yelling is not appropriate."  
  
"Continue, Detective." The Prime Minister says, after glancing around.  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi bows to the Emperor. "Thank you, sir." He sighs, "There isn't much else. Project 'Inu-yasha' is secret and I don't have access to those records." The prime minister turns the head of the Japanese Defense Forces.  
  
He stands, "Inu-yasha is the code name for a project to breed a new generation of police and army dogs, hence the code name dog demon. They are to be very resistant to diseases." He glares at Yoriko Kawaguchi. "And yes, in order to make them disease resistant we did expose them to various biological agents."  
  
He glances around the room. "But, all those biological agents are accounted for. And Project 'Inu-yasha' is based in Hokkaido not Tokyo."  
  
"Why is it secret?" Someone asks.  
  
"Some of the testing would be extreme and we did not want any public protests, so the project was classified to avoid any potential protest." He pauses. "Inu-yasha is not the cause of the pandemic." He sits down.  
  
The prime minister asks Yoriko Kawaguchi, "anything else?"  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi shakes his head, "Not at this point in time. I've got my best men trying to trace any connection between Higurashi and various right- wing groups and what you just heard is all that I know about project 'Inu- yasha'. It is my opinion that one of those two leads will lead us to whoever released the disease."  
  
A man slams open the door. "Prime Minister! General!" he is waving a piece of paper.  
  
"What!?" he cries.  
  
"A message from the US to North Korea. It's an ultimatum."  
  
The room goes silent.  
  
"Read it." The Prime Minister orders.  
  
"The US government has information in its possession that North Korea, acting through an innocent high school student named Kagome Higurashi, released the disease that started the current worldwide epidemic. The North Korea government is too publicly announce all the details of the plot within a short period of time, or the Government of the United States of America will compel the Government of North Korea to due so, by any appropriate means."  
  
the sound of sweat drops hitting the floor echoes through the room . . .  
  
Another aide runs into the room, waving a piece of paper and yelling, "Satellites, sir. A launch."  
  
The room goes quiet. "Where? Who?"  
  
"North Korea, sir. Multiple launches." He glances at his watch, "Seoul is already gone. Tracking shows more, numbers unknown, headed this way."  
  
Everyone in the room takes a deep breath.  
  
Everyone in the room knows that a turning point has been reached . . .  
  
Another man enters the room. "Sirs! Launches! From submarines! Target unknown!"  
  
The world is about to destroy itself . . .  
  
The military men begin to rush out of the room, beginning to react.  
  
Yoriko Kawaguchi sits down, heavily. He stares at his report, and he thinks, 'She and her mother vanished soon after that phone call. We've never been able to find them. So, now, we'll never know how Higurashi Kagome contracted the disease smallpox.'  
  
The end . . .  
  
_______________________________________________  
  
Smallpox did occur in Feudal japan . . .  
  
This story is not connected to my other stories. (Although, I will probably revisit this world in my story Kagome! Where are you?!)  
  
Thank you for reading jeff shelton  
  
thank you for reading jeff shelton 


	2. a realistic scenerio

Kagome destroys the world part 2  
  
Hmmm. Some reviewers of part 1, brought up some points, that I felt that needed to be addressed.  
  
First, Kagome destroys the World is a worst case scenario.  
  
In it, I assumed that anything that could go wrong did go wrong.  
  
Below is a somewhat more realistic scenario. Please note, I don't expect everyone to agree with this scenario, because, no doubt, I will be getting some things wrong.  
  
The bio-war scenario in Kagome destroys the world is pretty simple.  
  
Within the time frame of a week smallpox appears all over the globe. (this is from Kagome visiting the Museum and spreading the disease as she wandered about the exhibits AND from her going back and forth to school.)  
  
Japan is heavily effected. Over a dozen outbreaks, mainly centered around the museum (the people that work at the museum and the food vendors, etc) and around Kagome's school.  
  
South Korea and China have outbreaks.  
  
The USA has a couple of outbreaks. (old female tourist from Florida and business man out of NYC)  
  
Europe has cases in the UK, France and Russia  
  
Australia has a case.  
  
A case in Singapore.  
  
A case in India and a case in Chile. (Japanese archeology professors that visited japan and then returned to where they were working.)  
  
A case in Israel  
  
(A dozen to fifteen cases outside of japan, total)  
  
During the first week, and into the second, the news organizations are going to headline the story of smallpox. AND since predictions of an epidemic are more likely to generate high rating, that will be the included in the stories. (some channels might also have more level-headed people on them to counter the gloom and doom people, but, the predictions for an epidemic will be what people on the street will talk about.)  
  
There will be disruptions, demonstrations, maybe worse. Exactly how bad depends on the individual government.  
  
After the disruptions/demonstrations, hopefully, the news channels will remember that they affect public opinion and they'll tone down their stories. (given the huge number of modern mass media outlets, shrug, who knows, there could be people that, it's in their best interest to encourage the demonstrations?)  
  
Since the disease is popping up all over the world, at basically the same time, there will be concerns that it is terrorist related. Since Japan is the focal point, North Korea or perhaps China will be blamed for the disease, at least by some people. (the case in India would start similar thoughts about Pakistan. The case in Israel would start similar thoughts about say, Syria? Iran? Someone, else? giving it to the Palestinians?)  
  
Tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world will increase. There are people that will want to blame them. And, while medical/police detective work will sooner or later show that it's Kagome to blame, that will not occur overnight and people want to blame someone NOW.  
  
In a best case scenario, though, everyone keeps talking and nobody starts to warm up the military.  
  
Combating the disease... this gets a little tricky, here.  
  
The death rate with smallpox is 25-35%. BUT that figure is based on 1940-60 data. Given modern medicine that death rate should drop. (how far, shrug. Down to 5-10%, basically making it the equivalent of SARS, is perhaps a reasonable assumption.)  
  
The first couple of weeks will be the tricky ones. To stop an epidemic you have to quarante a lot of people and you don't have time to be polite about it. there will be problems as there will be people that will say, "I'm not sick. I'm not going to be quarante and I'll calling my lawyer and my congressman, because you don't have the authority to do it." As they shove a gun out the door.  
  
There are stockpiles of smallpox vaccine and there are plans to distribute it, in case of something like this. Those plans will be activated. Will they work as planned? Probably not. "I've got 10 truckloads of vaccine, but only 2 trucks! What do I do!?" problems like that will occur. Will it be a critical mistake? In a best case scenario, probably not, but problems will develop.  
  
As long as the cases stay close to up-to-date medical and transportation areas (so, even if there isn't any vaccine you can fly it in and distribute it)... things shouldn't be too bad. When it's all done, the outcome of this scenario should look a lot like what happened with SARS. Perhaps with a similar body count, perhaps a lot less, perhaps some more.  
  
The primary differences between the SARS and this scenario is the increase in tension with North Korea and the disturbances during the first days after the news breaks.  
  
Now... if the disease spreads away from up-to-date medical and transportation areas... things get worse. Without up-to-date medicine and without the ability to get it there and distribute it quickly the number of deaths will increase.  
  
(an example of what I'm talking about. Say, it spreads into the back areas of Indonesia. Where are the doctors at? Fly them in? sure. but will they speak the language? Interpreters? Ok? Where will they come from and who's paying for all this? What about food for the doctors? Will that be flown in? How about cars, trucks to transport the doctors, drugs, and food? Gas for the trucks? And since that is a pretty lawless area of the world... what about guards? What are the rules of engagement? Etc?)  
  
All of those problems will have to be solved and solving them will take time. And during that time the disease will spread. How bad would be get? Shrug. On the worst case scenario you'd be looking at the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but instead of taking decades, it only takes a couple of months. (and the number of deaths from non-disease related reasons increase as the logistical infrastructure of the continent collapses even more) On a more positive scenario the deaths would probably be measured in the thousands, not the millions.  
  
Oh, yes, there will probably be readers that disagree with the my opinion of the new organizations. Shrug. That happens. Unfortunately, I feel that they are far more concerned about ratings, selling air time and TV sound bites, instead of calm factual in depth reporting. They want controversy. They want headlines! "smallpox epidemic will kill millions!" not "Smallpox, is dangerous, but if you listen to some basic common sense advise, you'll do fine."  
  
And they'll be probably be readers that think I'm going overboard with the disturbances and people not wanting to be quarantined. Shrug. Perhaps, but if you tried to quarantine a couple of blocks in NYC, I don't think it'll go over all that well. (whither people pull guns or not, I don't know. Lawsuits... oh, yes, they'll be lawsuits.)  
  
A website similar to this...  
  
Delete the spaces for the link.  
  
mercola .com/ 2002/ jul/10/ smallpoxoutbreak .htm  
  
Thank you for reading Jeff shelton  
  
...  
  
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